Gega Activities

GEGA, along with EQUINET and HST, is hosting the 3rd International Conference of ISEqH 'Pathways to Equity in Health' from the 10th to 12th of June 2004 in Durban, South Africa. Several other events are planned along with this conference. These include Equinet's writers workshop from the 4th to 7th, GEGA's 'Equity Research to Action Short-course' from the 7th to 9th and then again from 15th to 17th June, Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) and International Association of Health Policy (IHAP) conference 'Partnerships for Health Equity' from the 6th to 8th, Equinet Meeting 'Reclaiming the State' on the 8th and 9th and GEGA conference on the 13th and 14th of June 2004.

The GEGA conference is aimed at strengthening alliances for health equity through building coalitions and sharing experiences for evidence-based, action-oriented health equity work. The conference will focus on building global advocacy coalitions in support of equitable health development. The conference will provide a platform for developing a participatory process to shape the global advocacy strategy for the Global Health Watch (GHW). The GHW is an initiative being coordinated by GEGA jointly with the People's Health Movement and Medact that aims to put forward an alternative and equity-enhancing perspective of key global health issues and for strengthening global and regional coalitions and networks in support of equitable health development. The conference will also provide delegates with an opportunity to learn about GEGA, our activities, and opportunities to work with the organisation. Exchange panels on particular challenges for promoting health equity will be organised, based on participants' interests. There is no registration fee for this conference but registration is compulsory. For details go to: http://www.gega.org.za/other/gegameet0604.php

Publications:

The Political Economy of Social Inequalities Consequences for Health and Quality of Life by Vicente Navarro, Editor

"The dramatic increase in social inequalities within and among countries in the last twenty years has had a most negative impact on the health and quality of life of large sectors of the world's populations. In The Political Economy of Social Inequalities, scholars from a variety of disciplines and countries analyze the political and economic causes of these inequalities, their consequences for health, and some proposed solutions."
"The book, the first of two volumes, is a collection of updated articles published in International Journal of health services." Read the introduction at:
http://baywood.com/intro/220-1.pdf

To order the book, contact Baywood Publishers, at:
Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.
26 Austin Avenue
PO Box 337, Amityville, NY 11701, USA
Tel. +1-800-638-7819
Paperbound: ISBN: 0-89503-252-x; US$ 45.00
Cloth: ISBN: 0-89503-220-1; US$ 65.00
http://baywood.com/books/previewbook.asp?id=0-89503-220-1

Training:

The Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University has announced a call for applications for the 2004 Human Rights Advocates Program. "The Program was established to build the capacity of grassroots activists worldwide so that they can more effectively address pressing human rights concerns and build linkages with the global human rights community. Beginning this year, the Center is launching a new phase of the program by focusing specifically on advancing human rights thinking and activism with respect to the global economy. Focus of the program is on advocacy, skills-building, and scholarship through a four-month intensive training program in New York. The Program is designed for lawyers, journalists, teachers, Community organizers, and other human rights activists working with non-governmental organizations in labor rights, migration, health, environmental justice and corporate social responsibility.." The complete application should be submitted no later than April 15 2004. The 2004 program will take place from September to December this year and will admit up to ten applicants. A limited number of fellowships are available. For more information, www.columbia.edu/cu/humanrights or
email: hradvocates@columbia.edu.

An Eight-week Intensive course in International Health Economics from May 3rd - June 25th is being organized by Center for Health Economics University of York. Centre Website: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/che/welcome.htm Course Website: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/che/internat.htm 'This eight week intensive course is uniquely designed for health managers and researchers who want to specialise in health economics. This course aims to provide state-of-the-art knowledge on the principles of health economics including lessons learned and best practices from country experience and equip policy-makers, planners, doctors and managers with a set of analytical tools based on economic principles. These tools will be used to examine the practical problems facing participants in their work. These include decisions about how to allocate and spend funds, techniques for service planning, policy development, evaluating and prioritising projects, issues of sustainability, dealing with donor and non-governmental agencies, and regulating private providers. Each issue dealt with will be related to its impact on health sector goals..' For further Information contact: Linda Whiting Centre for Health Economics, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, England Phone: 44 - 1904- 431448 Fax: 44 - 1904 - 431456 E-mail: che-ip@york.ac.uk International Programme Tel: +44 1904 431448 Fax: +44 1904 431456 E-mail: che-ip@york.ac.uk

A course on HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS: TRAIN-THE-TRAINERS is being held at School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town from the 31st of May to 4th of June 2004. The course is aimed at teaching staff in institutions training health professionals -Universities, Technicons, Nursing Colleges and other Training Facilities. The course is aimed at enhancing the understanding of the conceptual framework for human rights, its relationship to health, the historical context and national and international human rights debates relating health and human rights. Through the course, participants will explore strategies for curriculum change, including multidisciplinary teaching, identifying clinical settings in which human rights abuses take place, and exploring the relationship between ethics and human rights. For further information or registration details, contact Ms Sue MacHutchon at the Department of Public Health, University of Cape Town.
Phone 021 406 6608, Fax 021 447 1569 or email suemac@cormack.uct.ac.za.

Websites:

The Social Medicine Portal (www.socialmedicine.org) - a website devoted to promoting the principles and practice of social medicine. The goal in developing this site is to put readers in touch with some of the diverse international resources available for health activists and those interested in the interactions between health and society. The site contains many links, as well as a few documents and presentations. The material is divided into the following pages:

The International Budget Project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (http://www.internationalbudget.org/index.htm), assists non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and researchers in their efforts both to analyze budget policies and to improve budget processes and institutions. "The project is especially interested in assisting with applied research that is of use in ongoing policy debates and with research on the effects of budget policies on the poor. The overarching goal of the project is to make budget systems more responsive to the needs of society and, accordingly, to make these systems more transparent and accountable to the public. The project works primarily with researchers and NGOs in developing countries or new democracies. The site has following three theme areas; future themes may include Gender Budgeting.
- Legislatures and Budget Oversight
- Transparency and Participation in the Budget Process
- Applied Budget Analysis and Economic Social and Cultural Rights

The Social Determinants of Health SDOH List-serve is intended as an international forum for those concerned with the latest developments in theory, research, and practice regarding the social determinants of health. Social determinants of health are the economic and social conditions that influence the health of individuals, communities, and jurisdictions as a whole.

The neglect of the importance of social determinants of health led to the setting-up of the SDOH list-serve at York University. The purpose of the list-serve conference is to: a) provide the latest information on scholarship on social determinants of health; b); explore the implications of these conditions for the health of citizens; and c) provide support for those attempting to strengthen these social determinants of health in their local jurisdictions.
The list's interest is in both the specific social determinants of health as well as their health effects. There is particular interest in current issues related to early childhood and care, housing, food insecurity, etc. in addition to their effects upon health. To find out more visit:
http://quartz.atkinson.yorku.ca/QuickPlace/draphael/main.nsf/

Conferences:

11TH Canadian Conference on International Health
The Conference on International Health, following the path set in the previous two years, further examines the global stage and the conflicting forces that shape the politics of health and impact our own health. The conference theme this year is: THE POLITICS OF HEALTH: WHOSE REALITY COUNTS? The conference is being organized from October 24 - 27, 2004 in Ottawa, Canada Call for Abstracts - Deadline for Submission: May 31, 2004. Organized by the Canadian Society for International Health "The Conference objective is to provide an open and stimulating forum for practitioners, researchers, educators, policy makers, and community advocates to: analyze controversial issues related to global health policy from a variety of perspectives; share knowledge and experiences; learn about success stories, effective strategies, and new opportunities to influence the global health agenda through research, advocacy, and action.

Who sets the global health agenda?
Who makes decisions about our health?
Who is left aside and why?
Is this agenda reducing poverty, enhancing equity, or improving health?
Which values, interests, and evidence influence the process?
What are the options for making this process more open, more inclusive, and more participatory?"
For more information http://www.csih.org/what/conferences2004.html

The Call for Abstracts and Registration Brochure is now available for the international conference "Overcoming Health Disparities: Global Experiences from Partnerships Between Communities, Health Services and Health Professional Schools," October 6 - 10, 2004 - Atlanta, GA, USA. The conference is cosponsored by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health and The Network: Towards Unity for Health. The Call for Abstracts and Registration Brochure is available at http://www.futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph/nationalconference.html
Abstracts can be submitted at: http://www.thenetworktufh.org/conference/abstract.asp.
Note the deadline for Mini-Workshop, Story Session, and Partnership Blooper session abstracts is April 1. The deadline for the Poster Hall and Thematic Poster Sessions is 1 July. Registration for the conference is now open at
http://www.the-networktufh.org/conference/registration.asp

Tools for Action, Advocacy and Community Empowerment.

WRITING FOR CHANGE An Interactive Guide to Effective Writing, Writing for Science, and Writing for Advocacy by Alan Barker and Firoze Manji, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) IDRC/fahamu - ISBN 0-88936-932-1. FREE ONLINE VERSION at:
http://web.idrc.ca/IMAGES/books/WFC_English/WFC_English/
Writing for Change has been developed, designed, and published by fahamu, in collaboration with Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It has an interactive format and is a useful resource for effective writing for both scientific and advocacy work. It takes a stepwise approach from the conceptualization to organization of idea and then shaping the content of the message to suit the audience for effective delivery.

DESIGNING AND CONDUCTING HEALTH SYSTEMS RESEARCH PROJECTS: VOLUME 1 Corlien M. Varkevisser, Indra Pathmanathan, and Ann Brownlee KIT/IDRC 2003 Proposal Development and Fieldwork International Development Research Centre, 2003

This two-volume set presents a course outline, in modular format that deals step-by-step with the development of a Health Systems Research (HSR) proposal and field-testing (Part 1) and with data analysis and report writing (Part 2). "Originally designed for health managers at different levels as a tool to develop problem-solving research in the Southern African Region, the modules also proved useful in Malaysia and were further elaborated by staff of the School of Public Health. The modules in the present form represent a major revision of the original modules.

Website: http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-33010-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

The Economics of Priority Setting for Health Care: A Literature Review
Katharina Hauck, Peter C. Smith and Maria Goddard
Centre for Health Economics University of York, UK
World Bank - November 2003, Pdf [90p.] at:
http://www1.worldbank.org/hnp/Pubs_Discussion/Hauck-The%20Economics%20of%20Priority-whole.pdf

"This report provides a review of the literature on priority setting in health care. It adopts an economics perspective on the problem of choosing the optimal portfolio of programs that can be afforded from a limited national healthcare budget." The established methods of economic evaluation propose maximizing health gains and using cost-effectiveness ratio to weigh interventions for reasons of budget constraints. This report questions that premise and recognizes the importance of equity for the purposes of health. However, the report also identifies that much of the work on equity is conceptual and therefore not useful for practical purposes.

International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET):
Course Modules The World Bank's Evaluation Department (OED)
The Faculty of Public Affairs and Management at Carleton University. 2003

"IPDET was designed to meet the needs of evaluation and audit units of many different types of organizations involved in development work. This comprehensive international program is designed to help a range of development specialists conduct significant evaluations of development interventions at the project, program, and policy levels. It is both an educational experience and an opportunity to advance career objectives. The twelve modules from the two-week core course aim to build skills and knowledge required for high-quality development evaluation. This course is designed especially for those with little prior evaluation experience or for those wanting a refresher course." The modules combine the audit tradition approach with methods derived from social sciences, considered essential in the field of development evaluation. Development evaluation, according to the authors, should not be limited to objective-oriented evaluation only but should be participative and reflect what the participants gained from the interventions being evaluated.

Information provided in this newsletter is taken from a variety of sources including websites and listserves like Equidad list, Health Equity Network list, spirit of 1848 list.